Ann Powers
Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs.
One of the nation's most notable music critics, Powers has been writing for The Record, NPR's blog about finding, making, buying, sharing and talking about music, since April 2011.
Powers served as chief pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times from 2006 until she joined NPR. Prior to the Los Angeles Times, she was senior critic at Blender and senior curator at Experience Music Project. From 1997 to 2001 Powers was a pop critic at The New York Times and before that worked as a senior editor at the Village Voice. Powers began her career working as an editor and columnist at San Francisco Weekly.
Her writing extends beyond blogs, magazines and newspapers. Powers co-wrote Tori Amos: Piece By Piece, with Amos, which was published in 2005. In 1999, Power's book Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America was published. She was the editor, with Evelyn McDonnell, of the 1995 book Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Rap, and Pop and the editor of Best Music Writing 2010.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University, Powers went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of California.
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Yoakam's new project shows this king of modern classic country making a spiritual return to his Eastern Kentucky birthplace for as he rethinks songs from throughout his career within a bluegrass mode. -
As listeners everywhere process it in real time, two NPR Music critics trade notes on Ocean's confounding new release. -
After making acclaimed albums with Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton, producer Dave Cobb has quietly staked out territory as the man behind country music's roots revolution. -
The album You and I, due in March, is made up of songs recorded in Buckley's very first studio sessions after signing to Columbia Records, and displays the singer's wide range of influences.
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Listen to NPR Music's Ann Powers host a "Songs We Love" panel at Nashville's Americana Fest, where three of Americana's finest songwriters discussed and performed their favorite songs
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Adams' 1989 recognizes a rock lineage born of a woman. He's not legitimizing Swift's work – he's figuring out how her voice can validate and include his. -
The witty musician sits in a sweet spot where her charm and humor attract traditional country die-hards and pop fans alike. Ann Powers explores other women in country who paved the path. -
A hymn favored by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helps the Oscar-nominated film make a well-known historical story powerfully intimate. But the song has a tragic story of its own. -
Dig below the strata of pop songs so ubiquitous you can't stand to hear them anymore, and you'll find plenty of riches in the Top 40, from country crossover to innovative R&B and classic pop.
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Beyonce's 2013 self-titled album explicitly connected feminism to sexual confidence; it cast a long shadow over the female-led pop singles that dominated Top 40 this year.
